Your Curated Tumblr Experience Awaits!
Once again thinking about: "He was only fifteen-" "I'm fifteen!"
Imagine being Harry and finding out that one of the worst people you've ever met who does nothing but belittle and degrade you, who has become the antithesis of everything you aspire to be, is the victim of the exact person you believed to be the gold standard.
Because for years, everyone was telling Harry one thing about James while Snape was saying another and, for years, Harry had been comfortable believing Snape was the one who was wrong.
So, imagine being Harry and all you have left of your parents is the memories people choose to share with you, so you take all the scraps and make this Frankenstein idealistic version of your parents because, for a moment, it makes you feel like you actually know them.
And then, just in case you forgot, reality reminds you in maybe the worst way that you don't know these people at all.